Just months ago, Zhu Xueqin, a 31-year-old migrant worker in Shanghai, couldn't imagine that she would be in the center of the media limelight as one of three migrant worker deputies of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) held in March.

When she came to Shanghai from the countryside 12 years ago, she had only a middle school diploma. But her diligence and intelligence have helped her to work her way up from a sewing worker to a middle-level executive manager and Japanese interpreter for a Sino-Japanese textile company. She became one of Shanghai's first model migrant worker.

"I have experienced a lot of difficulty in the last 10 years. I believe that only by learning can a person quickly merge into the city," said Zhu, reflecting on her career path. She revealed that she is still technically a farmer as her residential registration remains in her hometown.

"I am one of 4 million rural migrant workers in Shanghai," Zhu emphasized. In her opinion, the work and living environments and political status of rural migrant workers have improved greatly over the past 10 years.

"I believe the top concern for migrant workers is social security," Zhu said. At this year's First Session of the 11th NPC, all Zhu's motions concerned migrant workers' social security.

Total transferability

In recent years, some provinces and cities have released regulations on injury and medical insurance for migrant workers. The next move is to enlarge the coverage of these forms of insurance for migrant workers. The top concern of rural migrant workers is whether they can receive a pension.

For the time being, rural laborers finding employment in cities have to return to the countryside when they are too old to work, and rely mainly on their children to take care of them. But many of the children who might have looked after these aging migrant workers are now themselves working in cities across China.

On March 5, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced in his work report that the government would accelerate the creation of pension schemes for rural migrant farmers.

Frequent changes of workplace have been a major barrier to the institutionalization of pension schemes for rural migrant workers. Surveys show that 72.8 percent of rural migrant workers have worked in different provinces and over 67.2 percent of migrant workers have changed jobs more than once in the first three years of work; it is common for migrant workers to change jobs twice or three times in less than one year. According to current social security regulations, a worker can receive a pension after paying premiums for 15 years in a row. That means, under the current social security system, a rural migrant worker has to work in one city for 15 years to get a pension.

Another limitation of China's social security system is the lack of a nationwide network, which means when a migrant worker switches to a job in another city, his or her pension account cannot be transferred.

According to current regulations, when a migrant worker moves to another province he or she can take only pension deposits made personally, not those made by his or her employer or from government funds.

At the beginning of 2008, it was noticed that many migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta region were cancelling their pensions and cashing in their personal payments. In some areas, as many as 95 percent of migrant workers with a pension account chose to cancel them. Tian Chengping, former Minister of Labor and Social Security, said that to solve the pension problem of rural migrant workers, pension accounts would first need to be made transferable between cities in the same province.

At a press conference during the First Session of the 11th NPC on March 9, Tian said, "The Chinese Government plans to conduct pension scheme reform in the next two years so that an individual's pension account information can be recorded on one card and the account will be totally transferable within one province." He added that further reforms would enable social security accounts to be totally transferable among provinces and municipalities. He said related government departments are conducting studies to release concrete measures, which could come out as early as later this year.

The overall goal on social security of the Chinese Government is to establish a social security network to cover all citizens by the end of 2020.

Low-rent housing

While a rising number of migrant laborers are working in cities and contributing to the local economy, their living conditions have been miserable until recently. Due to their low income and the nature of their work, many migrant workers end up living in makeshift cabins on construction grounds.

The first document focusing on migrant workers issued by the Chinese Government in March 2006 stipulated that the government would use various channels to improve the living conditions of migrant workers. The document also required related government departments to intensify supervision to make sure that housing for migrant workers met all state hygiene and safety standards. Since then, many local governments have begun to explore ways to improve low-rent housing for migrant workers.

Chongqing Municipality in the southwest is a city with a large population of migrant workers. To improve their living conditions, the municipal government has built 36 apartment buildings, which provide low-rent housing for 13,000 migrant workers in Chongqing city proper. According to the manager of one community, the building has 407 rooms, which are full now and accommodate over 1,700 residents. More than 95 percent of the residents are rural migrant workers and the majority live with their families who have moved from the countryside.

Yuzhong District of Chongqing, which houses the municipality's financial, information and cultural centers, is home to over 100,000 rural migrant workers, most of whom are under 40 years old. To offer comfortable and affordable apartments for rural migrant workers, the district government has been creative in transforming old idle housing, unused factories and deserted offices into apartments.

Although the low-rent housing has greatly improved migrant workers' living conditions, it has not all been well received.

Changsha, capital city of the central Huhan Province, has nearly 400,000 migrant workers. The city government has invested money to build 618 sets of low-rent apartments. These apartments have a cafeteria, library, reading rooms, video rooms, public baths, warehouse rooms for workers to store their tools, personal lockers and steel anti-theft doors. Property management companies operate the cafeterias and offer electricity and water maintenance services. The rent is between 50 yuan ($7) and 70 yuan ($10) per month. Despite quality and the price, the apartments have failed to attract many residents. One-and-a-half years after the completion of the community, only 26 sets or 4 percent of the apartments are rented out.

Analyzing the unexpected failure of the project, experts said it did not consider the work nature and living requirements of migrant workers. Although the rent is low, the apartments are far away from workplaces. The daily commuting expenses of tenants could be a financial burden for them. Moreover, applicants for the low-rent apartments have to present a labor contract from an employer that has been registered at the labor department of the local government. The reality is that most migrant workers work temporary jobs with no formal labor contract, so a large number are not qualified to apply.

Liu Chunyin, a media commentator in Anhui Province, said, "The implementation of low-rent housing for rural migrant workers should be based on intensive research and investigation. The opinions of migrant workers need to be listened to and considered. Without listening to migrant workers, the government's good will could turn into lousy policies."

Migrant Facts

- The population of rural laborers working in cities is 120 million and if workers in township enterprises are included, the total population is around 200 million.

- Of every three rural migrant workers, two are male and one is female.

- The average age of migrant workers is 28.6. About 61 percent are between 16 and 30, 23 percent are between 31 and 40 and 16 percent are over 40.

- Over 66 percent of migrant workers have a middle school education.

- Only 20 percent of rural migrant workers have received short-term vocational training, 3.4 percent have received junior vocational training or education, 0.13 percent have received middle-level vocational education and 76.4 percent have never received vocational training of any kind.

Source: Report on China's Rural Migrant Workers released in 2006